


bury it and rise above

by redsuns



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alien gender, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Bisexual Ben Tennyson, Bisexual Gwen Tennyson, F/F, M/M, Osmosians are aliens, POV Alternating, Ship is an AI (or is he), a little bit. u will see eventually., ben and gwen are drift compatible, cameos/appearances from.... a lot of ppl, diverges from canon at the beginning of alien force, gwen does magic, i'm pushing my nb ben and nb gwen agenda, idk i'm just having fun here, past Ben/Pierce
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26640685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redsuns/pseuds/redsuns
Summary: Ben Tennyson knows aliens.When he was ten years old, he went on a summer road trip with his grandfather and cousin. They were supposed to travel the country, see the sights, build character by camping in the middle of nowhere. A meteor landed in front of Ben that first night of the trip, narrowly missing him. In it, an alien watch that stuck itself to Ben’s wrist. His character-building, country-seeing road trip turned into a summer of fighting aliens by turning into other aliens, keeping his identity a secret from everyone except Grandpa Max and Gwen. They got the watch off, eventually, but an experience like that is not something you forget easily.So yeah, Ben Tennyson knows aliens.The things that come out of the Breach are nothing that Ben’s ever seen.
Relationships: Ben Tennyson & Gwen Tennyson, Ben Tennyson & Kenneth "Ken" Tennyson, Gwen Tennyson & Ken Tennyson, Gwen Tennyson/Julie Yamamoto, Kevin Levin/Ben Tennyson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	bury it and rise above

**Author's Note:**

> [tiktok voice] i'm insane! i'm crAzy!
> 
> anyways i've been rewatching ben 10 so. here we are ig. i'm still in the process of writing this and have a bad track record with finishing ongoing fics but i will do my best! bc this one is truly just Something Fun and not like written out of spite, so maybe we will have better luck. i hope we have better luck!
> 
> bellwood isn't mentioned in this by name but i've decided to put it in the midwest-ish. i didn't get specific bc only the beginning takes place there.
> 
> marshal dalton is doris dalton from the ben 10: race against time movie bc i liked her in that and i would like for her to have authority i think she's cool 
> 
> rated t for language and fantasy violence (canon-typical wrt ben 10; there's a lot less violence than in pacific rim i think)
> 
> title from bury it by chvrches

Ben Tennyson knows aliens.

When he was ten years old, he went on a summer road trip with his grandfather and cousin. They were supposed to travel the country, see the sights, build character by camping in the middle of nowhere. A meteor landed in front of Ben that first night of the trip, narrowly missing him. In it, an alien watch that stuck itself to Ben’s wrist. His character-building, country-seeing road trip turned into a summer of fighting aliens by turning into other aliens, keeping his identity a secret from everyone except Grandpa Max and Gwen. They got the watch off, eventually, but an experience like that is not something you forget easily. 

So yeah, Ben Tennyson knows aliens. 

The things that come out of the Breach are nothing that Ben’s ever seen. 

He’s fifteen when the Breach opens. Trespasser surfaces in the San Francisco Bay on the tenth of August. Ben hears about it after a soccer game; Julie calls him over, her eyes fixed on her phone. Ben looks over her shoulder at the screen. His heart stops.

It takes five days and three nukes to take down the Kaiju. Ben nearly puts the Omnitrix back on to go fight it. He would’ve done it, too, but Gwen has the watch and refuses to give it to him.

“I’m not sending you off to die,” she says quietly, arms crossed and eyes narrowed and sharp and angry. Ben pushes and presses some more, but Gwen stands firm. She won’t tell him where the Omnitrix is and she’s never dropped any hints as to where she might’ve hidden it. 

So Ben doesn’t put the Omnitrix back on. Tens of thousands of people in the San Francisco area die as a result of the Kaiju attack. Ben yells at Gwen about it. Gwen yells right back. They fight until there’s no fight left in either of them, and then they don’t talk for several weeks. Gwen doesn’t apologize for keeping the Omnitrix from Ben — she doesn’t need to apologize for keeping her cousin safe from harm. Ben stews in his anger for days and days until it fizzles out into plain old guilt. Guilt at putting Gwen in a position to choose between his life and the lives of thousands of people, guilt at letting those thousands of people die, guilt at leaving Gwen alone in the aftermath of the whole event. 

Ben doesn’t apologize, either, but he listens to Gwen and does his best to understand, and he does his best to explain his own guilt to Gwen and she does her best to understand. It doesn’t fix everything but they’re both talking again. 

Six months later another Kaiju makes landfall in Manila. Gwen once again shoots down Ben’s suggestion of putting the Omnitrix back on. “Even if you put it back on, how the hell are you going to get to the Philippines?” she says. “And say you get there, somehow. You saw what the last one did. That thing will  _ kill _ you, Ben.” 

Ben is given no choice but to back down. More Kaiju attack over the next several months and there is nothing Ben can do except watch and hope that something will stop them each time. Gwen, he hates to admit, is right. Even if he puts the Omnitrix back on, the only alien that stands a chance against these things is Waybig, and he doesn’t have enough mastery over the watch to make sure he gets the alien he wants each time. And he can’t fight each and every Kaiju, he can’t get to where they are in time to prevent landfall, he’s one person and there’s a whole lot of them and he’s going to tire eventually. Still, he wants to be able to do something. He wants to be able to protect people. 

And then the Pan Pacific Defense Corps starts up the Jaeger Program. 

Ben enrols in the Jaeger Program the day he turns eighteen. Gwen signs up with him. “Someone has to keep you safe,” she says. Ben hugs her and doesn’t let go for a while. 

They’re drift compatible, which is a surprise until Ben thinks about it for longer than five seconds. Of course there’s no one else who would see inside Ben’s head and not freak out. Gwen’s seen all the freaky alien shit Ben has, and she’s dealt with it better than him from time to time. The only other person who’s done that is Grandpa Max, but there’s no way anyone’s letting him sign up. 

Kenneth Tennyson hears about his little sister and little cousin signing up to be Jaeger pilots. He might’ve become a little distant from them over the last few years, but he knows his sister well enough to know that she’s still stubborn as hell — she’s going to make it into a Jaeger one way or another. He doesn’t need to think about it before he throws himself into his studies, turning his engineering major into an engineering and neuroscience double major. He goes out of his way to paint a target on his own back and get attention from his professors. By the time he graduates, he has the PPDC knocking at his door asking him to work for the Jaeger Program. 

Ken might not be able to pilot a Jaeger with his little sister, but at least he can make sure that the machine that helps her save the world keeps her safe, too. 

At twenty-one years old, Ben and Gwen become full fledged Jaeger pilots. Andromeda Lucky is a gorgeous piece of technology. The two of them stand at her feet, heads tipped back to see her in all her glory. 

They get to take her out for a spin in the waters outside the Los Angeles Shatterdome. Ben thinks he has a lot of experience with indescribable feelings, after spending a chunk of his childhood regularly turning into aliens, but piloting a Jaeger is entirely something else. He and Gwen move through basic forms, moving and turning and punching and kicking and shifting their weight as one, thinking in stereo. He can feel his own joy and awe reflected back at him in Gwen’s mind. 

Ken greets them when they come back, high off adrenaline and still feeling the echoes of the Drift. They both hug him tight, laughing and giddy and tripping over their words trying to describe the experience to him. He grins and throws his arms around their shoulders and walks with them down to the mess hall for lunch. Ben had never realized how cool it was to hang out with Ken before they all ended up in the PPDC, but it’s interesting to listen to his cousin explain how the Drift and the Jaegers work. Ken keeps his language simple enough that it doesn’t go over Ben’s head but still helps him understand what he’s talking about. They’re absorbed in conversation when someone new puts a tray down on their table and a voice greets them with, “Hey, thought I should introduce myself.”

Ben doesn’t recognize the voice, but he looks up and recognizes the face even though it’s been years and they’ve both changed a whole lot. Kevin Levin’s eyes are the same, though, and Ben grabs his own tray and says, “No. Nope. Nah. No thank you.” He leaves the mess hall with this lunch and locks himself in his and Gwen’s room. 

Gwen doesn’t follow him, but that’s not a surprise. He finishes his food by himself and then pokes around for something to do while he waits for her to get back. He skims one of her gender studies books (she’s a sponge for information, still, and Ben picks up interesting things in the Drift and makes notes to look them up later) and then one of her spellbooks and then lays on his bunk and stares at the bottom of Gwen’s bunk and spins around in the desk chair. He’s moved on to practicing fighting forms, moving slowly from one position to the next, when the door to the room opens. Gwen stalks in, smacks a file down on the desk and then throws herself into the chair. Ben straightens up from his crouch and goes over to her. 

“He checks out,” says Gwen, covering her eyes with the back of one hand and gesturing to the file with the other. “Not a perfect record, but pretty fucking good. I grilled him and his reasons for being here seem legit enough, and the low-level lie detector spell I cast didn’t pick up anything. He seems to be on the up-and-up.”

“What’s he doing here?” asks Ben, picking up the file. 

“Fucking building Jaegers, apparently,” Gwen says as Ben flips the file open. He raises his eyebrow at the tone of her voice before he feels her mind at the edge of his own and realizes  _ Drift echo. _

“Sorry about the headache,” he says, skimming Kevin’s file. Gwen’s right — pretty good record working for the PPDC, currently a J-Tech officer working on… “He’s on Andromeda’s team?”

Gwen sighs. “Yep. Kenny did his interview.”

Ben pulls a face. “Why didn’t he tell us?”

Gwen pushes the chair away from the desk and crosses the room to pull herself onto her bunk. “Well, not like he would’ve known to. As far as Kenny knows, there’s no connection between us and Kevin.” She looks over at Ben, brows drawn together. “If we don’t want him working on our Jaeger, we can maybe get Kenny to move someone around.”

“What do you think?” Ben asks, putting the file down and leaning against the desk. “Should we tell him?”

Gwen shrugs one shoulder. “I told you, I didn’t pick up anything malicious from Kevin. If you’re alright with it then I don’t see why we need to tell Ken.”

Ben takes a moment to think about it. “I trust your judgement,” he says finally. “If you think he means well, then I’m willing to believe it. First sign of something, though, and we get him away from our Jaeger.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Gwen says. They’ve only piloted Andromeda once, but one time piloting a Jaeger is all it takes to make Ben and Gwen very attached to this two-hundred-and-fifty foot machine. 

Ben goes to flop down onto his own bunk. “This is kinda crazy, huh?” 

Gwen laughs from above him. “Yeah, it kinda is. Julie stopped me on the way here and said Nimbus Defiant is going out for a test spin tomorrow morning, too. It’s— this is our life now.”

Ben grins. 

Nimbus Defiant is the first and only Jaeger of its kind. Instead of two human pilots, it is piloted by a human and an artificial intelligence. Ken’s cagey about the specifics of the AI’s development, but he reassures Ben and Gwen that it’s more than capable of helping Julie support the Jaeger’s neural load. If Nimbus works — if Nimbus brings in the results that the PPDC wants — then full-sized single-pilot Jaegers could become a reality. 

Ben and Gwen stand in LOCCENT Mission Control, their eyes fixed on the screen and watching Nimbus Defiant move through her forms. Julie’s Jaeger is more streamlined than theirs, designed to take advantage of her background as a tennis player by letting her stay light on her feet and move quickly. She moves through basic fighting forms fluidly. Ben keeps an eye on the screen monitoring her vitals. He catches Gwen doing it, too, out of the corner of his eye. Julie’s neural handshake with the AI is holding steady, her brain activity is normal, her pulse within acceptable range for someone actively piloting a Jaeger. 

“Movement detected in the Breach,” a mechanical voice says. Ben’s gaze snaps over to the screen displaying the Breach sensors and then over to meet Gwen’s. 

“Marshal,” Gwen says. 

“Go,” says Marshal Dalton. 

Ben falls into step next to Gwen on their way up to the Drivesuit room. Andromeda’s J-Tech team is already there, waiting for them. Kevin is there, too. He gives Ben a terse nod and turns to the table next to him with pieces of Ben’s Drivesuit laid out on it. Ben holds still while Kevin flicks the latches on his suit, checking and double-checking the connections with efficiency. Helen suits Gwen up next to them. Kevin taps the side of Ben’s helmet gently after latching it on and asks, “Fitting right?”

Ben nods, refusing to say anything. 

Gwen and Ben step into the Conn-Pod together. Ben closes his eyes for a moment while Kevin secures him to the rig, breathing in and out slowly. He doesn’t need to look to his right to know that Gwen’s doing the same. He opens his eyes as Kevin steps back. 

Ken’s voice comes through the comms. “Initiating neural handshake.”

Stepping into Gwen’s mind is easy. Ben lets their shared memories tumble past him in the Drift, catching snatches of Gwen’s thoughts alongside them until the Drift solidifies between them. 

“Right hemisphere calibrated,” Gwen says.

“Left hemisphere calibrated,” Ben says.

“Neural handshake holding strong and steady,” Ken says.

Ben leans back and lets the rig support him as the Jaeger is lifted into the air by a group of Jumphawks. “Kaiju’s a Cat Three headed toward the northwestern coast of the US,” says Marshal Dalton. “You are to engage it well away from the Miracle Mile. The Anchorage Shatterdome is standing by for backup. Good luck, Rangers.”

“Sir,” Ben and Gwen say together. They spend the hour-long flight from the Shatterdome to the drop point volleying thoughts back and forth, taking advantage of the split-second communication in the Drift. It’s calming, having Gwen’s mind at the edge of his own, feeling her conviction and determination and seeing her strategies flit by. It’s calming, too, to feel Andromeda Lucky like a second skin, to realize the scale and power that he and Gwen have right now. Ben’s not scared to face down a Kaiju. He’s excited. 

“Andromeda,” Julie’s voice comes through the comms as they approach the drop point. “Come here often?”

Ben laughs. “Nimbus! Care to show us the sights?” 

The Jumphawks drop both Jaegers into the water. Ben and Gwen brace themselves and land solidly on their feet. Ben can feel the grin on Gwen’s face and the adrenaline running through her veins and his heart sings with it. 

“Kaiju approaching,” says the mechanical voice of Julie’s AI co-pilot. Andromeda Lucky and Nimbus Defiant both turn towards the open ocean in anticipation. Nimbus flicks their wrists and extends a pair of batons from their forearms. Andromeda brings their fists up and plants their feet. 

The Kaiju bursts out of the water on Nimbus’s right. They spin and catch it across the face with a backswing of the baton. The creature roars and rears back long enough for Andromeda to come up past Nimbus and catch it with an uppercut. The Kaiju falls back into the water to regroup. Andromeda and Nimbus move to stand back to back, waiting for it to resurface. Ben keeps an eye on the sensors while Gwen drops them into a low fighting stance. 

“On your left, Andromeda,” Julie says, right as the sensor Ben’s watching beeps rapidly. Andromeda turns and brings their arms up, crossing them in front of their face. Gwen grunts as they take the impact of the Kaiju. 

“Nimbus!” Gwen shouts. Nimbus spins around, retracting their batons, and lands a punch to the side of the Kaiju’s head. They cock their fist back and punch it again, and then again before it backs off. It drops to all fours and tries to circle around the Jaegers but Andromeda knees it in the chest and knocks it backwards. 

Nimbus comes up at Andromeda’s side and puts their fists up. This time, Gwen’s grin pulls up the corners of Ben’s mouth, too, and they both bare their teeth for the fight. 

It takes nearly a half hour to take the Kaiju down. Nimbus Defiant heats up the coils inside their batons and stabs them through the Kaiju’s torso, holding it still long enough for Andromeda Lucky to fire their Plasmacaster into its skull. Ben’s ears ring in the aftermath — the absence of Kaiju roars and metal hitting flesh leaves an almost eerie silence. Gwen breathes hard in sync with Ben, and Julie’s breathing comes in through the comms, too. 

“Good work, Ranger Yamamoto, Rangers Tennyson,” says the Marshal. 

“Thank you, sir,” Julie says. Ben can hear the grin in her voice. 

Even the sight of Kevin Levin can’t bring down Ben’s spirits. He’s buzzing with post-fight adrenaline and Drift echoes as Kevin removes his Drivesuit. Gwen’s running over the fight in her mind, rewinding and replaying and taking notes in her head. There’s a slight tremor in her hands from the rush of it, noticeable to Ben only because his own hands are mirroring it. The two of them stand next to each other, shoulders touching, while Kevin and Helen run through a checklist of questions related to the Jaeger’s performance. They finish each other’s answers and leave spaces for each other’s comments like one mind flitting between two bodies. When they finally leave the Drivesuit room to meet up with Ken and Julie in the mess hall, there’s a swagger in their step, one that doesn’t normally belong to either Ben or Gwen — that’s Andromeda Lucky through and through. 

“Look at you guys!” Ken says when he sees them. He tosses a bundle to each of them. Ben catches his with a slight grunt and unfolds it to see a bomber jacket in the same green and blue colour scheme as his Jaeger. He turns it around to look at the back to see the logo he and Gwen designed, the same one that’s on the left shoulder of both their Drivesuits: a snarling black cat with a black-and-green Omnitrix symbol hanging from it’s collar,  _ Andromeda _ written above it and  _ Lucky _ written below. Gwen’s already put her jacket on, fiddling with the hem and collar and sleeves and grinning at it. Ben follows suit. The weight of it on his shoulders is comforting — it soothes the ache that’s been in him since he started missing the feeling of the Omnitrix on his wrist. 

Julie’s got her own jacket, too. She stands up from her seat and turns around to show it off: the dark and light greys and silvers of Nimbus Defiant with a swirling pink cloud on the back, her Jaeger’s name written above it in elegant script. Ben whoops as she does a spin and takes a bow. 

“We’re trending,” Julie says after they’ve sat down with their food, Gwen sandwiched between them. She pushes her phone so Ben can see the screen. Sure enough, #AndromedaLucky and #NimbusDefiant are in the top 10 trending hashtags on Twitter, with videos of the fight attached. News helicopters have gotten good at capturing footage while staying well away from the action. Gwen taps the screen to play one of the videos and Ben squishes in closer to the screen to see it. There’s a news anchor narrating the fight like it’s a wrestling match. The anchor exclaims and cheers when Andromeda gets the kill shot. Gwen swipes out of the video and keeps scrolling until she reaches a livestream of the press conference that the Marshal’s giving. 

Marshal Dalton stands in front of a podium, dressed neatly in her uniform, her hair curling down past her chin. She is firm and poised, but Ben can recognize the glint of pride in her eyes. 

“They’ll start scheduling interviews for you soon, probably. Get ready to start telling the same three stories about your childhood.” Ben looks up to see Helen’s brother, Pierce, sliding into a seat next to Ken. Kevin and Helen are both with him. Ben feels his face twitch at the sight of Kevin but doesn’t say anything about it. “Congrats on the kill, by the way,” Pierce says, extending a fist for Ben, Gwen, and Julie to bump. “The collection team’s out taking samples right now. I’m gonna get my hands on the stuff after lunch.”

“Gross,” says Gwen, raising her eyebrows. Ben and Julie make disgusted noises of agreement. Pierce laughs at them. 

“Well  _ I’m _ going to hit the city, link up with some friends,” Julie says. “Post-drop downtime, here I come!”

“Ugh, lucky,” Ben says. “Gwen’s making us stay and train.” He elbows his cousin in the side and gets a shove in response. “I’m about to spend my downtime getting in Kenny’s way whenever Gwen’s not kicking my ass.”

Ken grins. “Gwen doesn’t want to  _ hit the city _ too?”

Ben grins back. “You’d think so, yeah?”

The both of them wince one after the other as Gwen kicks their ankles under the table. There’s a faint blush on her cheeks when Ben turns his grin on her, and she’s very steadfastly not meeting Julie’s curious gaze. 

“So, Kevin,” she says, a blatant subject change, “how come we haven’t seen you around before now? Ben and I have been here for a while — I thought I knew everyone in the Shatterdome.” Ben recognizes this tactic — she questioned Kevin yesterday, now she’s double-checking for inconsistencies in his stories. 

Ken’s eyes flick between his sister and Kevin. He jumps in before Kevin has a chance to respond. “Kevin's a new transfer from the Nagasaki ‘dome. He helped out a little with Nimbus’s development, so I requested him for Andromeda’s team.” He grins at Ben and Gwen. “Only the best for your Jaeger.” 

“I didn’t know you worked on Nimbus,” Julie says, folding her arms on the table. “Were you on the AI team, or did you just do hardware stuff?”

Kevin clears his throat. “A bit of both. I’m mostly on the actual Jaeger tech side of things, but I’ve got some experience, uh, working with AIs. They had me test run the early Ship versions.”

“Ship?” Ben asks, curious despite his lingering dislike. 

Kevin looks surprised at being addressed directly by Ben. “Single Handshake Pons,” he says. “We started calling him Ship ‘cause it kinda rolls off the tongue better.”

Gwen raises an eyebrow. “Him?”

Kevin shrugs, looking faintly embarrassed. “Felt like a ‘him’.”

“It’s really cool,” Julie says, saving Kevin from whatever Gwen’s about to say next. Gwen’s attention snaps to her immediately, all traces of irritation wiped from her face in favour of a gentle smile. Julie blushes under Gwen’s gaze but presses on. “I mean, a lot of the specifics are classified, obviously, but it’s really nothing like any other experience. Even drifting with someone else just doesn’t compare for me.” And then, gently, “Also, pronouns aren’t always an indication of gender. Ship feels like a ‘him’ so that’s what we use, but really he’s genderless.”

“You’re Drifting with him fine?” asks Kevin, shooting a relieved smile at Julie. Gwen bristles a little at this, but Ben knocks his elbow against hers and she doesn’t say anything. Kevin, pretending not to notice this, continues, “He worked pretty well with me, but I’d guess doing diagnostic and prototyping checks are a little different from actually piloting a Jaeger.”

Julie’s eyes light up. “Yeah, our Drift is really great! It’s interesting actually — he’s got a lot of personality for an ali— for an AI.” She tilts her head and scrunches her nose. “Though I don’t have that much experience with other AIs, so I don’t really have a frame of reference. But more personality than I expected at least. It makes Drifting a lot easier, somehow.”

Kevin nods. “Yeah, I get what you mean. I’ve never managed a successful Drift with a person before, but Ship kind of guided me through it.” 

“You’ve tried Drifting with people?” asks Helen. 

“Kinda,” says Kevin. “I joined up as J-Tech but they wanted to, I don’t know, see if they could get me in a Jaeger. I’ve got, uh,” and here he pauses, chewing his lip and looking up at the ceiling for a moment. “I’ve got a certain skillset that I guess seemed like it could be useful for fighting.”

Gwen tenses. Ben, too, goes on high alert. There’s no way Kevin doesn’t notice the shift in their demeanours, but if he does notice he doesn’t let on. Ken looks over at both of them and frowns. He tilts his head in an unspoken question. Ben shakes his head slightly in response. Ken purses his lips but lets it go for the time being. 

Everyone else around the table looks curious. Kevin sighs and says, “You know Cooper? Uh, Officer Daniels?” Cooper’s the head tech for Julie’s Jaeger. He’s also a mutant — he can control tech with his mind. It’s part of why he was selected to work on the PPDC’s first AI-piloted Jaeger.

“Ah,” Helen says. “That kind of skillset.” 

Kevin nods. “Not exactly, but something kinda like it. Anyways, Drifting with people didn’t work out that well for me, and I didn’t want to be a Ranger in the first place, so.” He shrugs. 

“Is your  _ skillset _ the reason they had you work on Nimbus?” Gwen asks, eyes narrowing. Across from her, Ken hisses under his breath for her to “be nice” and kicks her under the table. Ben keeps his eyes on Kevin. Kevin grimaces.

“I mean, I’d like to think they had me work on her because of, y’know, my actual engineering ability. But yeah, my skillset was probably a factor.”

“Damn,” Julie says. “I kinda wish they’d put you on Nimbus’s J-Tech team if I’m being honest.”

Ken throws an arm around Kevin’s shoulders. “Sorry, kiddo. I thought Gwen and Ben might appreciate having someone with a unique skillset working on their Jaeger.” Ken fixes the two of them with a glare as he says this. Gwen raises her eyebrows in a silent challenge. Ben, having decided to continue to back Gwen up, does the same. Julie glances over at Gwen, then at Ben, then at Ken. 

Pierce, who’s remained mostly quiet until now, taking in the conversation, speaks up. “I sure hope you guys aren’t discriminating against people over things they can’t control,” he says coldly, all traces of his earlier camaraderie gone. He looks directly at Ben. “That would be  _ very _ hypocritical of you.”

“Trust me,” Ben says back, keeping his voice even, “we’re the last people who would discriminate over something like that.”

Pierce narrows his eyes. The rest of the table falls silent, everyone’s gaze flicking between Ben and Pierce. 

“Are you quite sure about that?” asks Pierce. “You don’t seem to trust people with  _ special skillsets _ . You might not want one working on your Jaeger.”

Helen says,  _ “Pierce, that’s enough,” _ and Gwen says, “Don’t you dare speak to him like that,” and Ben says, “Oh, get the fuck over yourself,” and Ken says, “I think we should take a second to cool our heads,” and Kevin shrinks into himself all at once. 

Ben pushes away from the table. “You know what?” he says. “I’m full.” He rises from his seat and stalks away. Gwen follows, but not before glaring and curling her lip at Pierce. Helen smacks her brother on the arm and shoots an apologetic glance at Ken. 

As Ben walks away, he hears Kevin ask, “What was that about?” and Helen respond, “I’ll tell you later.” He tunes out anything past that, keeping his shoulders squared and eyes fixed in front of him. Gwen falls into step beside him. She unlocks the door to their room for him and steps aside so he can throw himself down onto his mattress. She doesn’t say anything, just lights the candle on the desk and grabs the blanket from her bunk, laying it down on the ground next to Ben’s bed and sitting down on it with her legs criss-crossed. She closes her eyes and places her palms on her knees, straightens out her spine, and fills her lungs. Ben rolls onto his back and folds his hands over his ribcage, joining her on the exhale. Gwen leads him silently through meditative breathing for ten minutes. He’s a lot more calm and clear-headed at the end of it. 

“Thanks,” he says quietly. 

“Hey,” she says, just as quiet, “it’s alright. You didn’t know he wasn’t over that.” 

Ben snorts and sits up. “It’s just— I don’t owe him my secrets. And he definitely doesn’t have any right to  _ your _ secrets.” He buries his face in his hands. “I’m almost glad Kevin got brought in.”

Gwen bunches up her blanket and throws it upward onto her bunk. “Right, and that has nothing to do with the fact that you think he’s hot?”

Ben makes a face. “Of course I  _ thought _ he was hot, I dated him. I didn’t realize he could be such a dick, though.”

Gwen covers her laugh behind one hand. “Not Pierce. You think  _ Kevin’s _ hot.”

“Oh, ew, no!” Ben shudders. “Why would you say that?”

“I’ve been inside your head, Ben.” Gwen bumps her knuckles against the side of Ben’s head. “It’s alright to have bad taste in men, even if your track record is  _ really _ bad.”

“Blegh,” Ben says. “I  _ don’t _ think Kevin is hot!”

Gwen rolls her eyes. “Methinks the Benny doth protest too much. You could barely stop thinking about his hands the whole flight out to fight a giant Kaiju.” Then, looking at Ben’s face, “Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t know you were thinking about him?”

Ben feels a faint horror crawling up his spine. “Oh my god. Gwen, do I think Kevin is hot? Do I think Kevin Levin is  _ hot?” _ His voice pitches up at the end. He grabs his pillow and presses his face into it and screams. He’s realizing, now, the way his thoughts  _ had _ lingered on the deft surety of Kevin’s hands while he helped Ben suit up and the expression he made while listening to the conversation during lunch. And the way he’s got a few inches of height on Ben and how his frame has filled out with muscle in the many years since Ben last saw him. 

Gwen pats him on the shoulder. “There, there.”

Ben groans. “This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Gwen laughs. 

When Ben said earlier that he intended to get in Ken’s way, he meant it. He spins around in a chair in Ken’s lab, pointing at things and asking about their purpose and poking his face into whatever Ken’s working on and generally getting underfoot. Ken shares the space with a few of his colleagues, but they all seem to tolerate Ben’s presence with good humour. Some of them even explain what they’re working on to Ben while they work, keeping him engaged and out of Ken’s hair. Ken himself doesn’t mind it when Ben comes to hang out; he’d never really hung out with his cousin that much when they were kids, and Ben is Gwen’s best friend at this point. And besides, Ken likes being able to look out for his sister and cousin in whatever ways he can. 

None of Ken’s colleagues are in the lab right now, so Ken interrupts one of Ben’s questions with one of his own: “What’s the deal with Kevin?”

Ben puts a foot down on the ground to stop the chair’s spinning. “What do you mean?” he asks, trying for nonchalance and missing spectacularly. He bites his lip, trying to figure out the best explanation for his and Gwen’s reaction to seeing Kevin again, wondering if he should tell Ken the whole truth or omit parts of it. 

Ken’s eyebrow raise is like an upgraded version of Gwen’s. He stares Ben down, not saying anything. 

Ben sighs. 

“We’ve had a few run-ins with Kevin in the past,” he says. “Not— not positive ones. And yeah, he was a kid, but it’s made us a little cautious.”

“Run-ins?” Ken sits down on the surface of his desk. 

“He. Well.” Ben leans back in his chair and huffs out a breath. “Kevin can absorb energy. And we met him the same summer I found the watch.” 

“Fuck,” Ken mutters. “And he went after you and Gwen?”

Ben nods. “Just me. Gwen hadn’t— we didn’t know about her whole thing yet.”

“Well, then.” Ken crosses his arms. “If you want him off your team, I’ll understand. I can get him moved somewhere else.”

Ben shakes his head. “Nah. We decided we’re fine with him as long as he doesn’t hurt Andromeda. Gwen and I looked through his records, and Gwen did a lie detector spell on him while she was grilling him. He seems like he’s not here to hurt us.” Ben closes his eyes. “And it’s not fair for us to shove him off his job over something that happened years ago.”

Ken puts a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “You’re allowed to not be over it,” he says. “But if it’s any consolation, I know Kevin doesn’t do energy absorption anymore. It’s— I’m only telling you this because of your whole alien thing, okay? You can tell Gwen, but don’t spread it around.” Ben nods. “Kevin’s part alien, and his species kind of goes insane when they absorb too much energy. I’d guess that’s what might’ve happened when you were kids, and it was probably incredibly traumatizing for him. I have it on good authority that he's in therapy now, and he’s voluntarily subjecting himself to regular psych evals to make sure his head’s in a good place.” 

Ben slumps a little. “Yeah, it helps to hear that, actually. Thanks, Kenny.”

Ken ruffles Ben’s hair. “Don’t mention it, kiddo. And listen: Kevin’s a bright kid, and he’s really passionate about his work. He’s not going to hurt your Jaeger. In fact, the only way anything other than a Kaiju is gonna hurt your Jaeger is probably over his dead body. He loves that machine.”

“I’m kind of relieved he’s here, actually,” Ben admits. “Maybe it’s mean, but I kinda don’t want Pierce working on my Jaeger after… everything.”

Ken winces. “Yeah, sorry about him. I’ll talk to him about, I don’t know, appropriate behaviour.”

Ben snorts. “I thought we agreed to be civil after the breakup, but he’s pissed I didn’t tell him about the watch or Gwen’s magic. Which,” — and here Ben straightens up in his chair, getting a little heated — “isn’t information he’s  _ entitled _ to anyways, regardless of our relationship status.” Ben huffs. 

“Oh, yeah, he was way out of line,” says Ken. “I’ll talk to him about it, for real. You’re still coworkers and he needs to at least behave professionally.” He purses his lips. “Everything’s fine with Helen, though?”

Ben nods quickly. “She was mostly on my side after the breakup anyways. As much as she could be, I guess — she definitely thinks Pierce was in the wrong. It’s nice having her on Andromeda’s team.”

Ken reaches out to ruffle Ben’s hair again. “Glad to hear it. Anyone else gives you trouble, you come straight to me, yeah?”

Ben bats his hand away, smiling. “Yeah, yeah. Thanks again, Kenny.”

Ken’s room is right across the hall from Ben and Gwen’s, which is how the two of them find out that Kevin is Ken’s new roommate. They’ve stepped outside their door for their morning run around the Shatterdome only to find Ken and Kevin in the hall. Ken is stretching his legs while Kevin stands there with his arms crossed over his chest. Ken looks up when he hears their door click and smiles. 

“Hey!” he says cheerily. “I thought we might join you guys this morning.”

Ben’s gaze is unfortunately fixed on the way Kevin’s tight t-shirt stretches across his biceps, so it’s Gwen that shrugs and says, “If you think you can keep up.” She taps Ben’s side, snapping him out of his trance, and takes off down the hall. Ben falls into step with her easily, their sneakers hitting the ground in tandem. 

“Oh, come on!” Ken groans from behind them. Ben hears his and Kevin’s footsteps pick up. 

The personnel at the Los Angeles Shatterdome are used to Ben and Gwen’s morning routine. They don’t move out of the way when the two of them come at them at a brisk jog; they know by now that Ben and Gwen will dodge around them easily. It’s a little harder for Ken and Kevin to keep up, probably because they don’t have the Drift-given sense of which one of them will dodge where. Still, they avoid bumping directly into anyone, even if Kevin smacks his shoulder against the wall and Ken trips over his own feet a little. Ben and Gwen laugh at each of these instances, not falling out of step with each other the whole time. 

“This really isn’t fair,” Ken says, leaning over to put his hands on his knees. They’ve gotten into the elevator to go up to the Jaeger bay that holds Andromeda Lucky. Ben is hopping from foot to foot to keep moving, Gwen is jogging in place, and Ken and Kevin are leaning against the walls of the elevator. 

“Your muscles are going to cramp,” warns Gwen. Ken waves her off. She rolls her eyes. 

“You guys do this every morning?” Kevin asks, looking at Ken with a concerned expression. 

Ben glances over at Ken, too. “Kenny doesn’t,” he offers. “Gwen and I do. It’s this, then breakfast, then the gym for a bit.”

Kevin looks up at Ben. “And this is your day off?”

Ben shrugs, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Gwen sneers at him ever so slightly. He sticks his tongue out at her, then feels his face heat when Kevin laughs. The elevator dings. Ben takes off through the Jaeger bay. 

Running through the Jaeger bay is Ben’s favourite part of his morning. He weaves around people easily, raising a hand in greeting when they call out to him, sidesteps a cart transporting Kaiju parts, ducks down to greet a few of the many dogs and cats that live in the Shatterdome. He and Gwen race to one particular docking station, coming to a halt at Andromeda Lucky’s feet at the same time and slumping down against her, pressing their foreheads to the cool metal. 

Ben lays his palm flat against the surface of his Jaeger and swears he can feel a pulse, a steady heartbeat. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/criticaihits) and [tumblr](https://sunprophets.tumblr.com)


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